David Hammons Is on Our Mind

Book excerpt: Includes the transcription of three public events: a 1994 lecture by David Hammons (previously unpublished) as well as a poem by Tongo Eisen-Martin and a lecture by Fred Moten, both from 2017. The CCA Wattis Institute for Contemporary Arts, an exhibition space and research institute in San Francisco, dedicates year-long seasons of discussions and public events to a single artist. In 2016-17, the American artist David Hammons was "on our mind."This book begins with the transcript of a rare artist talk given by Hammons in 1994 at the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, on the occasion of his exhibition there. It then introduces a series of photographs the artist sent to the Wattis Institute in 2017, interspersed with texts by the Bay Area poet Tongo Eisen-Martin and the writer and critic Fred Moten. Much like Hammons' work, this publication raises more questions than answers. Rather than functioning as a comprehensive introduction to the artist, David Hammons is on our mind offers visual and textual elements that relate obliquely to the enigmatic artist's oeuvre.